The European Commission’s green light for Croatia to enter Schengen might as well be a green light for human rights violations and violence at Croatian border.
“The Commission has been actively supporting Croatian efforts to ensure full respect of fundamental rights at the border”, stated the Commission in its “Communication on the verification of the full application of the Schengen acquis by Croatia”. This was regarding the protection of human rights of asylum seekers and other migrants, and the allegations of denial of access to the asylum procedure and of use of force by law enforcement officials at the border. They concluded that Croatia fulfilled all the obligations – including respect for human rights?
Really? Even if EU institutions decide to ignore all the human rights defenders: civil society organisations, institutions such as the Ombudsperson's Office, international governmental and non-governmental actors (UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontieres) there is at least one statement that must worry us all.
